Nov. 19, 2010 - Dearborn, Mich. – Hundreds of Michigan entrepreneurs and business leaders gathered Nov. 18 at the Ford Conference and Event Center to discuss the direction that Michigan business is headed at Michigan Emerging. The goal of the conference was to initiate action within the business community for an economically prosperous Michigan.
The day started strong with Michael Finney, President of Ann Arbor SPARK, who presented a compilation of growth statistics that new businesses within the emerging sectors are currently experiencing. Finney was followed up by Rishi Jaitly, the New York native and former Google executive, who is the Founder and CEO of Michigan Corps. Jaitly discussed his intent to boost Michigan’s economy and creating wealth for its residents through his national non-profit Michigan Corps.
A panel on the Emerging Sectors offered entrepreneurs expert advice within each field, which included: Advanced Technology, Homeland Security & Defense, Life Sciences, Renewable Energy and Advanced Manufacturing. The audience members were able to hear past experiences from panel members and were allowed to ask for advice on some of the problems they themselves are experiencing.
The day never slowed as the afternoon session continued with Dr. Bryan Ritchie, Co-Director of the Michigan Center for Innovation and Economic Prosperity took the stage to discuss the center’s strategy to develop and seamlessly connect educational institutions within the private sector. After a morning of sitting, attendees were given the chance to explore the entrepreneur expo booths and join in on two out of seven breakout sessions from topics that ranged from Finding Capital to Retaining Michigan Talent.
The conference closed with the National Small Business Association President, Todd McCracken, who emphasized the power of Michigan’s entrepreneurial spirit that will enable Michigan to move into the next phase of our economic evolution.
Organizers of Michigan Emerging along with the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition – an international business competition designed to highlight Michigan as a robust and vibrant venue for innovation and business opportunity announced yesterday the winners of the Michigan Emerging Catalyst Awards and the Accelerate Michigan Tweet Award. The winners were announced at Michigan Emerging’s closing ceremonies at the Ford Conference and Event Center in Dearborn.
The Michigan Emerging awards program recognizes those in the Michigan business community who are taking action and inspiring others to do the same.
The Michigan Emerging Individual Catalyst Award honored an individual who has been proactive in investing in Michigan’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.
This year’s Individual Catalyst Award recognized Mike and Marian Ilitch. Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch were unable to personally accept the award but the issued the following statement: “On behalf of our entire organization, thank you very much for this recognition. Creativity and innovation have long been a core value for us as we built our companies over the years and we’re thrilled to see a conference like Michigan Emerging exploring these and other very important topics that are vital to the future of our State. Michigan has long been known for incredible innovation and today, the state is making a name for itself as a haven for entrepreneurs. Creating a culture where risk taking, perseverance, collaboration, innovation and creativity are key to success will be a catalyst for Michigan’s future. Congratulations to all in attendance and thank you for this honor.”
In addition, the Michigan Emerging conference recognized a collaborating group that has engaged in innovative ways to connect with a cross section of sectors with proven success with the Group Catalyst Award. This year, University Research Cooridor received the Group Catalyst Award for their success with:
1) The Michigan Neonatal Biobank is a storage and management facility
for the Michigan Department of Community Health's archive of dried
blood spot cards. The Biobank is the culmination of collaborative
efforts by the Michigan Department of Community Health, Wayne State
University, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and
the Van Andel Research Institute to develop this valuable archive of
dried blood spots into a unique resource for research.
2) The recently announced alliance between Business Leaders for
Michigan and Michigan's University Research Corridor. Through this
alliance, Michigan's largest businesses and universities are working
together to accelerate our state's economic transformation and make
Michigan a "Top Ten" state for accelerating economic transformation
and cultivating entrepreneurism based on mutually beneficial values,
investments and activities.
The URC is an alliance between Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University to transform, strengthen and diversify the state's economy. The University Research Corridor partners have formed this alliance to play a key role in creating a vibrant Michigan economy that leverages the intellectual capital of its three public research universities, to work proactively to attract the knowledge economy businesses that can find the research activity that feeds new enterprise, educates the workforce and plants the seeds for the new industries of tomorrow.
The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition also announced the winner of the Tweet award. Open to companies and people who completed an application to enter the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition as well as individuals that subscribed for information regarding the competition but did not enter a submission, Tweet Award entrants were invited to submit a 140 character business idea. Judging was based on originality, ability to communicate the most complete idea, and the ability to capture investors' attention.
CYJ Enterprizes received this year’s Tweet Award by submitting a Twitter posting focused on their business product e-CYREN, a free online database of emergency information for schools and daycare programs. Their posting In case of emergency first responders can quickly alert loved ones and have access to your vital medical info 24X7 www.ecyren.com, was selected as the winner, and CYR Enterprises CEO Carole Johnson accepted the $5,000 prize at today’s Michigan Emerging event.
The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition Tweet Award is just one component of the larger competition which will award more than $1 million in cash and in-kind staffing, software and services on December 11 to company and student winners.
The New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan granted Ann Arbor SPARK $750,000 to launch the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition on behalf of the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan, which is composed of four of the region’s key business accelerators – Ann Arbor SPARK, Automation Alley, Macomb-OU INCubator, and TechTown. Joining the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition as premier sponsors is Accelerate Michigan.
For more information about the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition, visit www.acceleratemichigan.org, or connect with the competition via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Michigan Emerging, once known as the Celebrate Michigan Expo, is one of ten featured events in the nation for Global Entrepreneurship Week. During the week of November 15-21, more than 30,000 events will take place across the nation to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit. Michigan Emerging, the only featured event in Michigan, is being produced by ARZIKA in conjunction with Jan and Marshall Rice formerly from MichiganMall.com. ARZIKA provides executive event, experiential marketing and event management services designed to build and maintain brand recognition and audience engagement. For more information on ARZIKA please visit www.ARZIKA.com.
Take an active role —help spread the word through social media on Twitter and join the Michigan Emerging groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more information on Michigan Emerging, visit www.michiganemerging.com or call 248.275.1337.